Nokia on Thursday sent invitations to bloggers and the press for an event at which it will unveil at least one next-generation Lumia smartphone. “You are warmly welcome to join us in London on 14 May for the next chapter of the Lumia story,” the invitation said. Specific details about the upcoming announcement were not provided. Nokia is reportedly working on a number of new Windows Phone handsets that will debut in 2013, including the Lumia 928 and a phablet with a screen that measures between 5 and 6 inches diagonally. An image of Nokia’s invitation follows below. More →

Images said reveal an upcoming NokiaLumia smartphone appeared on the popular Chinese social network Sina Weibo earlier this week. The images, which have been confirmed as authentic by WPCentral, show an improved design with an aluminum case, a shift away from the traditional polycarbonate cases of past Lumias. The upcoming handset is said to be equipped with a 4.5-inch display, a dual-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 processor and an 8.7-megapixel rear camera. Other specs are rumored to include 16GB of internal storage, 1GB of RAM and a 2,000 mAh battery. The smartphone will reportedly be announced on May 15th for a late June release date on T-Mobile. A second image follows below. More →

Earlier reports indicated that Nokia (NOK) was preparing to bring its 41-megapixel PureView camera technology to its Lumia line of Windows Phone devices. The company was said to be working on a new smartphone, code-named EOS, with an improved design and an upgraded PureView camera that would launch later this year. Sources speaking to The Guardian on Monday confirmed the handset’s existence and revealed that it is scheduled to launch in the United States this summer. It has previously been suggested that AT&T (T) will be the first carrier to offer the EOS smartphone. Nokia declined to comment “on market rumors or speculation.”

Nokia (NOK) smartphones already look and feel top-notch, and they’ll only get better in future releases. The Verge reports that Nokia is planning to move away from the polycarbonate casing it used for its Lumia 920 model and instead use an aluminum construction for next-generation Lumia models set to be released later this year. The result of this is that the new Lumias “will be a lot lighter and thinner than the existing Lumia 920,” which itself is a very stylish, sleek smartphone. The Verge says that the new Lumia has been code-named “Catwalk” and will have internal specifications similar to the Lumia 920.

Nokia’s (NOK) press conference on Wednesday definitely had its ups and downs, and investors weren’t convinced that Nokia’s new Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 smartphones will fare well against Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone 5, which is expected to launch on September 21st following next week’s announcement, shares of Nokia stock were trading down more than 13% during Nokia’s presentation. We spent some time with Nokia’s new smartphones on Wednesday morning, however, and they really are a breath of fresh air in many ways.

Nokia’s (NOK) first Lumia models may not have been top sellers, but according to Apple’s (AAPL) lawyers they do have one thing going for them: They didn’t rip off the iPhone. The Seattle Times’s Janet Tu points out that during Apple’s closing arguments in the Samsung (005930)-Apple patent trial on Tuesday, Apple attorney Harold McElhinny held up a Nokia Lumia device to demonstrate that “not every smartphone needs to look like an iPhone.” Of course, this isn’t that much comfort for Apple’s rivals since the top-selling smartphones right now — namely, the Samsung Galaxy S III and the iPhone itself — do tend to look like the iPhone. If Apple’s lawyers think citing the Lumia will ward off potential copycats in the future, they’re likely to be sorely mistaken. More →

Nokia warned that its first-quarter earnings would be weak, and the numbers are now in. Revenue declined 30% to €7.4 billion, or $9.7 billion USD last quarter, down from €10.4 billion, or $13.6 billion in the same quarter last year. The company posted a massive €1.3 billion loss, or $1.7 billion USD, which breaks down to a loss of €0.25 per share. Smartphone sales plummeted 52% to 1.7 billion units in the first quarter, and net device sales dropped 40% to 4.2 billion units. Read on for more. More →

Nokia’s attempt to regain the traction in the mobile market is turning out to be more difficult than the company once thought. Four major wireless carriers in Europe have said that Nokia’s Lumia smartphones are “not good enough” to compete with Apple’s iPhone or Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones, Reuters reported on Tuesday. Nokia bet big on Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform last year, however the gamble has yet to pay off according to the report. “No one comes into the store and asks for a Windows phone,” said an executive in charge of mobile devices at a European operator. The company is now playing catch up with Apple and Google after suffering a huge decline that hurt its image in the high-end market, and according to Reuters’s sources, Windows Phone might be making matters worse. “Nokia have given themselves a double challenge: to restore their credibility in terms of making hardware smartphones and succeed with the Microsoft Windows operating system, which lags in the market,” the executive said. “If the Lumia with the same hardware came with Android in it and not Windows, it would be much easier to sell.” More →

Nokia’s first U.S. carrier-backed flagship smartphone to launch in years now occupies the top two spots on Amazon.com’s list of best-selling cell phones. The new Lumia 900 Windows Phone, which became available on April 8th, features a 1.4GHz processor, a 4.3-inch ClearBlack AMOLED display, compatibility with AT&T’s 4G LTE network and a sleek design that sets it apart from other full touchscreen handsets. Amazon’s charts listed the phone in the No.1 (black) and No.3 (cyan) spots during pre-sales, and now the cyan model has climbed one position to give Nokia first and second positions on the online retail giant’s list of best-selling phones. BGR reviewed the Nokia Lumia 900 last week and we called it Windows Phone’s best shot yet to gain ground against Android and Apple’s iPhone in the mass market. More →